Florence Spinner

May her memory forever be a blessing.

RACHEL RICHARDS
One of my 3rd grade assignments was to compose an essay of “your personal hero”. I recall the difficulty I had deciding on a hero. I think I eventually submitted something about the President, or some celebrity, or Superwoman. Since then, I have often pondered the question of “who is my hero?” and only in the past several years has it occurred to me that my Grandma Florence was my hero.
She had so many admirable qualities that I have tried to emulate. She was fiercely independent and not at all afraid to march to the beat of her own drummer. She always had a positive view of things and she was never short of smiles. When we went out to dinner it was her joyful demeanor that permeated the group. We would joke to the waiter…. “We’ll have whatever she’s having!”
She taught me to smile and look for the goodness in the people around me. She taught me that you could live alone and not be lonely. She taught me to always be true to yourself. She taught me that happiness is not a natural consequence, but a choice to be made.
I will miss her sloppy kisses. I will miss her retelling of the stories told so many times before that we all knew them by heart. I will miss her constant humming of old show tunes, completely off key. Although I dearly miss Grandma Florence, I will always have these fond memories, and I will never forget the lessons for life that she taught me.

ERIN RICHARDS
My Grandmother, Florence was an amazing woman. She was strong, caring, and light-hearted. She read me stories and would sing silly songs. She was the quintessential grandmother, but she was also much more.
She led an inspiring life. From immigrating to America, learning a new language, and working when most women didn’t have jobs or careers, her life inspires me to push myself. She followed her heart, even when it wasn’t convenient or politically correct. She raised a beautiful family, and even through loss, kept a smile on her face. Her life inspires me to always keep loved once close, and to embrace the joys in life.
When I was little, she I loved my visits with her. She took me for my very first manicure, always gave me change for the ice cream truck and cooked the best matzo ball soup. I will miss her fervent opinions, her re-telling of the same family stories and her levity.
Even when her health declined, her biggest concern was for me; that I not worry or be upset. For me this exemplifies my Grandmother… someone whose principal objective was to be sure that her family was happy.
And so, I will honor her memory by laughing, telling a joke, and allow the remembrance of her songs and stories with a smile…. I’m certain that she would want it no other way.

Florence Spinner
1916 – 2011
Graveside Service
Shalom Garden, Los Gatos Memorial Park
October 20, 2011

Meditation
O God of life, amid the ceaseless tides of change which sweep away the generations, Your living spirit remains to comfort us and give us hope. Around us is life and death, decay and renewal; the flowing rhythm that all things must obey.

Our life is a dance to a song we cannot hear. Its melody courses through us for a little while, then seems to cease. Whence the melody, and whither does it go? In darkness as in light, we turn to You, Lord, the Source of life, the Answer to all its mysteries.

Can it be that we, Your children, are given over to destruction, when our few days on earth are done? Or do we live in ways we cannot know? Only this have we been taught, and in this we put our trust: from You comes the spirit, and to You it must return. You are our dwelling place in life and in death.

More we cannot say, for all else is hidden from our sight by an impenetrable veil. We thank You, then, for the life we have, and for the gifts that daily are our portion:
For health and healing, for labor and repose, for the ever-renewed beauty of earth and sky; for thoughts of truth and justice that move us to acts of goodness; and for the contemplation of Your eternal presence, which fills us with hope that what is good and will never perish.
Lord, what are we? A breath? A passing shadow? Yet you have made us little less than divine.
Psalm 121
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills;
from whence cometh my help?
My help cometh even from the LORD,
who hath made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved,
and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.
Behold, He that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD himself is thy keeper;
the LORD is thy defense upon thy right hand;
So that the sun shall not burn thee by day,
neither the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil;
yea, it is even He that shall keep thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in,
from this time forth and evermore.
Amen.




El Maleh Rachamim (Prayer for the departed)
God, filled with mercy, dwelling in the heavens’ heights, bring proper rest beneath the wings of Your Shekhinah, amid the ranks of the holy and the pure, illuminating like the brilliance of the skies the soul of our beloved Florence who has departed to her eternal place of rest. May You who are the source of mercy, shelter them beneath Your wings eternally, and bind their souls among the living, that they may rest in peace.
And let us say: Amen.